January 29, 2009

At the Sunday before the Chinese New Year holiday, my friends and I went to Wang Kelian, the northern-most place in Perlis, of course, bordering Thailand.

It is not a famous border town as compared to Padang Besar, but it boasts of its free-flow facility, where both Malaysians and Thais can cross border without passport. That factor alone made me so eager to get there.

We went there by rented car, and it took about an hour from our hostel to get there. FREAKING 60 KILOMETERS! AAAHHH...

It's not an easy ride because the road is very windy and steep.

You only see the road going down. When it's going up it's totally different matter. Car really need power.

I think at least 70 degrees steep. Everyone just held their breath as I frantically shift to lower gears! Fuh...

The area is actually a cross-border market. Typical to the one in Serikin, near Indonesian border.

The difference is, with this one, everyone can cross border, freely.

The border post is very small. Interestingly, as we were settling our immigration procedures (just show them our IC and let them check), many are just walking past it! We're like.... so speechless.

Anyway we tried to be legal, or else we gonna be "pendatang asing tanpa izin." Oh no...

It's feeling so good to step out of Malaysia and enter a brand new country.... Thailand.

Welcome to Thailand! Sa-wat-dee-khab! :)

Thai flag flying high. To show that where we are now.

Eagle, landmark of this place. Quite similar to the one in Langkawi, don't you think?

It's another row of stalls over there, but majority of them are speaking Thai. It's getting quite hard, but I still managed some simple ones like numbers, asking how much and so on.

And the very first thing we bought there is.... TADA...

PIZZA! Why now since it's so close to the border, cost only 49 bahts (we paid in ringgit though, only 5 bucks) and fresh from the oven!

Meanwhile my friend, Rajesh, also bought me this...

It's called SOMTAM. It's made on the spot, right in front of me. Not bad, consider it's 20 bahts. Erm... still ok for me, but for others maybe they will vomit out la...

We just sat on the grass at the road divider. No way else to sit. Sit back, relax and enjoy Thai food. Ah...

At Thailand side, we only managed to buy foods since others are selling stuffs that I don't need. However, the temptations are still there.

1 piece only 5 bucks! Any takers?

Anyway good stuffs has to come to and end.

Thailand border post. Quite similar to its Malaysian counterpart. With a big portrait of the King of Thailand.

I really thank all my friends who are willing to accompany me and pay me 10 bucks in this trip la. It's really a very Malaysian group. Hahaha...

January 2, 2009

I think my measures below maybe too much for myself. Nevertheless, I will keep doing it as long as possible, as I seriously feel that I need to strip down my expenses drastically for something more important in the future. Hmm...

First of all, FOOD...

This is what I eat for almost everyday! NO RICE as bread is much cheaper than nasi campur sold out there. Plus, with these, I can predict my expenses easily. You never know how much you gonna be charged for taking the dishes from them. Simply never know.

Furthermore, I will really like to feel how is it feel like to be a "rice-deficient" person. Surely, with such diet, I won't be malnourished, right?

At least, in the midst of bread and biscuits, I still have banana. Not bad what. Of course, no more KFC, Pizza Hut and any outside food.

Next, I think quite important too...

SAVING. YES, SAVING.

Even to the extent of saving those little coins EVERYDAY. At the end of the day, if I have any coins lingering in my wallet, I will just put them into this "saving keyboard."

Not only that, I will also periodically "invest" some money into my 2nd bank account. Something like this...

10 dollar only? Hmm...

I am thinking, why not I put in RM100 every month? Or even more?

Why spend so much?

Another drastic measures that can change me forever is...

I GIVE UP USING WASHING MACHINE.

It's really a waste of money and it's also helping me to become more and more lazy. Plus, it's messing up my clothes to grow fungus and those black spots. Eww....

Hand-washing clothes everyday brings me that special fulfillment too. Yeah it's hard, but I am getting used to it. It is great too to clear my boredom and "thinking-too-much" syndrome.